CASSANDRA C. JONES: RARA AVIS
Feb 2 - Mar 9, 2007
Queen’s Nails Annex of San Francisco and the Nathan Larramendy Gallery of Ojai California are pleased to present a solo exhibition by Cassandra C. Jones entitled Rara Avis, meaning "strange bird" or "something rare". The gallery will host an opening reception on Friday, February 2, 7 – 11 pm. Opening night will feature live performances by Bobby Birdman and Claire L. Evans as Universe starting at 10pm.
Jones's current work is the result of collecting thousands of other people's snapshot photographs over the last four years. Her installation's and animated videos, which Jones calls Snap Motion Re-Animations, are constructed by compiling these photographs together in groups of akin subject matter and presenting them ways that tell stories about human culture the how it takes all individual experience to make up the whole.
Rara Avis is a series of projects made from her collection of photographed birds. The show features several Snap Motion Re-Animations of birds that were photographed in motion. Jones re-sizes and places each found snapshot in a rhythmic order to re-create (or re-animate) the time-based event of flying.
Rara Avis also includes an installation of wallpaper, ornately composed of found snapshot photographs of real pink flamingos that are discernibly reminiscent of their retro plastic counter-part, the lawn ornament. This particular collection of photographs led her to wonder, is it possible that an item of now historical kitsch might influence the picture taking of the real, live thing? After all, Americans are much more familiar with the stylized, florescent version, than the actual bird itself. In the process of collecting Jones found that one of the most common snapshots taken of a wading flamingo to be the profile of the bird's long, soft, curved neck and down-bent bill.
Rara Avis speaks to the relationship between Americans and nature; how nature is commonly brought into the home in safe and often artificial ways such as lawn ornaments, floral wallpaper and media reproductions of moving and still imagery. Jones's work also relates to the tendency of taking and viewing photographs as a safe replacement for actual experience.
